1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a plant operation support system for use in the operation of plants with complicated behaviors such as petroleum refining chemical processes and water-treatment processes of water and sewage.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Some of the conventional plant operation support systems using plant simulators are described in Patent Documents 1 to 3.
According to the invention (Prior Art 1) described in Patent Document 1, a plant operation support system operates a plant simulator in synchronization with a plant, generates initial data for prediction simulations on the simulator, and predicts plant behaviors by performing high-speed simulations on the basis of the initial data.
According to the inventions (Prior Art 2) described in Patent Documents 2 and 3, a plant operation support system operates a plant simulator in synchronization with a plant and changes the parameters of simulation models.
(Patent Document 1)
                Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 1994-222191(Patent Document 2)        Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 1997-134213(Patent Document 3)        Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 1998-214112        
However, there is a problem with Prior Art 1 in that because the parameters used in the simulator are not modified, the accuracy of predictions of plant operations is poor.
Although the invention described in Patent Document 3 automatically adjusts parameters in plant models, it uses plant data which has already been acquired and recorded. Therefore, it does not provide on-line synchronization with actual plant operations and is primarily intended to adjust the parameters of plant simulators.